Sarah Wicks is a Winthrop and Eagle STEM Scholar alum ('15), who obtained a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry and a minor in Biology. While at Winthrop, she was a McNair Scholar and conducted research under co-supervision of Drs. James Hanna and Robin Lammi, where she synthesized and evaluated small molecules as aggregation inhibitors for Alzheimer's amyloid-beta peptide. Sarah was member of several organizations, including Close Scholars, Students Challenging Others to Pursue Excellence (SCOPE), WU Student Affiliates for the American Chemical Society (SAACS), and Zeta Tau Alpha. Sarah is now a 4th-year Ph.D. candidate in the Chemistry department at Duke University. Her research focuses on evaluating small-molecule interactions with therapeutically relevant RNAs to identify small-molecule properties and shapes that lead to selective recognition. Following the completion of her Ph.D., she aspires to take on a position in pharmaceutical industry to develop therapeutic approaches to modulate as well as elucidate the function of disease-driving biomacromolecules.
